


A Little Fall of Protein

by elrondjolras



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Jack Has to Learn to Deal With Two Important Relationships, Kinda, Multi, Protein Jack: Origins, Relationships Are About Compromise, Slow Burn, The Childhood Friends are Jack and Protein
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-18
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-25 02:21:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9798227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrondjolras/pseuds/elrondjolras
Summary: The story about a boy and his protein - a love for the ages.





	

**Author's Note:**

> take both my laptop and access to the internet away from me

Jack is four years old the first time he remembers seeing his father drink a protein shake. 

He had been teetering on the brink of sleep and consciousness for hours, spending most of the night staring up at the glow-in-the-dark hockey stickers his mama had put on his ceiling. The sky outside his window is just beginning to brighten with the first signs of daylight when he hears soft footsteps making their way down the hall. Eager to finally have an excuse to  _ do _ something, Jack slips out of bed and follows the footsteps to the kitchen, peeking his head around the entrance. His papa stood there, back facing Jack, as he pulls a bag out of one of the cabinets that Jack can’t reach yet and sets it down on the counter.

“Papa?”

His papa visibly startles and Jack is secretly pleased he had managed to sneak up on him.

“Jack? What are you doing up so early?”

Jack moves fully into the kitchen and his papa picks him up and sets him on the counter, next to the bag he had taken out. “I couldn’t sleep. Can I watch you papa?”

“Of course you can,” His papa laughs, ruffling Jack’s already messy hair, “In fact, I think I could use your help. That sound good _? _ ”

“Yes!” Jack replies, kicking his legs against the counter until he remembers that his mama is still sleeping, and that she probably wouldn’t like to be woken up by the noise. His papa hands him the milk, and Jack carefully pours it into the blender container, remembering to hold the top of the bag so it wouldn’t spill. Next, his papa opens the bag, and Jack can see that it’s filled with some sort of powdery thing.

“It’s protein,” his papa tells him, scooping some out and into the blender, “It helps me to stay strong so I can play hockey well.”

“Can I have some?” Jack asks. He wants to play hockey just as well as his papa does, and if protein will help him do that, then he wants to have some too.

“ Sorry Jack,”  His papa chuckles and screws on the lid of the container, “It’s not for little boys. But you’ll be able to have it when you’re older, don’t worry.” He then turns to fit it into the main part of the blender and starts it up. Jack watches the powder and milk mix together until he can’t tell the two apart anymore. He watches as his papa pours the mixture into a glass and gulps it down.

He can’t wait till he’s old enough to try it.

* * *

Jack is fourteen years old when he tries his first protein shake.

Since that fateful morning nearly ten years ago, Jack had made it a sort of habit to wake up at dawn with his father and watch him make his protein shake, sometimes helping, never drinking. His papa had laughed and shaken his head at Jack the first few times, which had morphed into an amused-yet-confused acceptance as Jack didn’t appear likely to stop any time soon. It had become a sort of ritual between them, a private moment for the two of them to bond and talk, away from the cameras and the press and the general chaos that seemed to perpetually surround the Zimmermann family. His papa would ask Jack about his own hockey, and Jack would say it was going well. Jack would ask his papa if he was nervous or excited about his next game, and his papa would smile and say a little bit of both, and that was usually that.

As soon as Jack was tall enough to reach the cabinet in which his father kept his protein powder, he would find himself taking down the bag and just staring at it for minutes at a time until he heard someone coming, in which case he would hurriedly put it it back. Not that he thought there was anything necessarily  _ wrong _ with what he was doing it was just. He didn’t want to have to explain just what he found so compelling about the idea of protein shakes. He wasn’t sure he knew the answer himself.

On the morning of his fourteenth birthday, Jack pads into the kitchen, brushing his hair out of his eyes. His mama says he needed a haircut, but he honestly can’t be too bothered. He begins getting the ingredients for his papa’s shake out, figuring he’d at least save them some time this way.

“Get another glass out today,”

Jack turns to see his papa enter the kitchen, followed by his mama, holding her camera and beaming at him. Jack stares at them in confusion for a minute before his eyes widen in understanding. “ _ Really? _ ” he asks, a smile breaking out across his face as his papa nods.

A few minutes later, he holds half a glass of protein shake in front of him.  _ His glass _ . This is it. He’s finally going to do it, is finally going to be able to taste the maple-flavoured goodness he’s been craving for the better part of his admittedly short life.

“Cheers Jack. And Happy Birthday, son,” his father says, clinking their glasses together while his mama snaps a picture of them. He’s sure it would be sent to all her friends before the hour was up,  _ My baby boy’s first protein shake. He’s a man now. _

Jack slowly brings the glass up to his lips, takes a deep breath, and takes his first sip. He almost cries right then and there. It is the most beautiful thing he’s ever tasted in his life. The subtle maple flavour is a familiar taste and perfectly complements the thick texture of the shake. Jack knows that there’s no way a single sip could have any real effect on him but in that moment, he could swear he felt himself grow stronger already.

* * *

Jack is twenty one when he enrolls in Samwell University. The boys on the team are nice enough, even though some do give him a bit of a wide berth at first. Not that he can blame them - it’s been a few years since his overdose but he knows there’s still a bit of buzz around his name. He lives in a single dorm room - which he’s extremely thankful for, not just because he’s still a bit uncomfortable constantly being around other people, but because a single room also comes with a lot more space than Jack would have had had he been sharing with someone else. Space that he puts to immediate use.

As a result of Jack now living in America and refusing to change to a locally sold brand, he has to have his Maple Protein Powder shipped in to the university in bulk from Canada.He goes through a bag about every two weeks now, and so to avoid constant shipments he orders roughly a semester’s worth of protein at a time and keeps it all in his room, mainly on his desk. It does mean that he has limited space for actually  _ working _ , but it’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make. Especially if it means he’s able to wake up every morning and see the bags of protein lined up out in the open for him to gaze at. It’s the first time in his life where he doesn’t have to be ashamed about the sheer amount of protein he surrounds himself with, the first time he has a space he can dedicate to the thing he’s starting to think he loves most in the world. It’s not a big space, and it’s not completely ideal, but he absolutely loves it.

* * *

 

Jack is twenty two when he moves into the Haus. His best friend from freshman year, Shitty, moves into the room next to his, a fact which he is secretly grateful for. While he’s definitely gotten closer to the other guys on the team in general, Shitty has a way of making him feel at ease that no one else has really been able to do. Despite sharing the Haus with four other guys, Jack finds that he has more personal space here than he ever has before. His room is spacious and is known to the others as being off-limits, which they thankfully respect, and so his protein can be out on display for him without any worries.

It’s three months into his sophomore when he tells - or rather shows - Shitty. Jack leads him up until they’re standing in front of his locked bedroom door. Shitty had been quiet the entire way up, looking at Jack patiently, if not a little concerned. Jack takes a deep breath and opens the door, letting Shitty in. He watches as Shitty’s eyes sweep the room, not missing the sharp intake of breath as his eyes finally land on Jack’s Protein Corner. The stack of protein bags is almost a full head taller than Shitty, looming over him as he tentatively walks over to the pile, reading label after label of  _ Canadian Protein: Premium Whey Protein Blend in Canadian Maple _ . Jack shifts a little uncomfortably, still standing by the door. Shitty’s been quiet for too long; it’s uncharacteristic and Jack is starting to regret letting Shitty in when he spins around, points a finger at Jack and says,

“Motherfucker if this is the reason you beat me in that arm wrestling contest last year, I want a rematch. And some of this good stuff.”

And Jack lets himself laugh and be pulled into Shitty’s hug, trying to ignore the way his throat closes up a bit when Shitty whispers, “You don’t need to be ashamed of any part of you brah. I don’t like, judge or anything, you know I’m not about that shit. If you wanna spend the rest of your days shaking then I’ll be right there shaking along with you.”

And for the first time since his parents found is extra protein stash hidden under his bed and told him they still loved him, Jack lets himself believe that everything will be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> if you managed to make it till the end, i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/iscarosaac) and [tumblr](http://stevieroqers.tumblr.com/) ready to entertain any and all protein jack thoughts. next chapter: jack's relationship with protein is put to the test as a sunny baker who looks like he's never had a single sip of protein shake in his life appears and rocks jack's world


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